Will Hay
William Thomson Hay (6 December 1888 – 18 April 1949) was an English comedian best known for playing authority figures with comic failings in several films, most notably as a schoolmaster. His film Oh, Mr Porter! (1937), made by Gainsborough Pictures, is often cited as the supreme British-produced film-comedy, and in 1938 he was the third highest-grossing star in the UK. Many comedians have acknowledged him as a major influence. Hay was also a keen amateur astronomer. |
Birth and Death Data: Born December 6, 1888 (Stockton-on-Tees (town in County Durham, England, UK)), Died April 18, 1949 (London (capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom) )
Date Range of DAHR Recordings: 1931
Roles Represented in DAHR: speaker
= Recordings are available for online listening.
= Recordings were issued from this master. No recordings issued from other masters.
Recordings
| Company | Matrix No. | Size | First Recording Date | Title | Primary Performer | Description | Role | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Victor | MVE-UNI-69[a] | 16-in. | 8/25/1931 | Universal newspaper newsreel. Vol. 3, no. 69 | Will Hay | Motion picture soundtrack : Announcing, with dubbed recordings | speaker |
Citation
Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. "Hay, Will," accessed December 27, 2025, http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/320486.
Hay, Will. (2025). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved December 27, 2025, from http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/320486.
"Hay, Will." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2025. Web. 27 December 2025.
DAHR Persistent Identifier
Linked Open Data Sources
LCNAR: Hay, Will, 1888-1949 - https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n78064608
Wikidata: Will Hay - https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q1699902
VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/65266069
MusicBrainz: Will Hay - https://musicbrainz.org/artist/04d6b2bb-07ea-48a4-b794-d4d39b107cd2
ISNI: 0000 0000 7103 6925 - http://www.isni.org/isni/0000000071036925
Fast: https://id.worldcat.org/fast/26483 - https://id.worldcat.org/fast/26483
Wikipedia content provided under the terms of the Creative Commons BY-SA license
Feedback
Send the Editors a message about this record.